I liked that there are next to no side missions, or friends calling to play fucking darts every twenty minutes, but I didn't like how you always had a mission to complete. I didn't realize until at least three quarters through the game that you didn't have to go and finish them immediately, so I finished the game a lot faster than I would have liked..

It was a short game, but I enjoyed it a lot more than most games. I just hope that any DLC is just as good.

i swear every game russ reviews is no where near as awesome as he claims it to be.... either its a case of simple things amuse simple minds or hes getting bribed out the ass to make these rubbish games sound better than they actually are.

Meh.Free ride for me was never here nor there, and I've only been on Free Ride Extreme in however many years I've been playing the first game. I'm already nearly halfway through my third playthrough of the second (33 hours in total); I've always been able to find replayability in stories I enjoy.

The game has a very detailed and carefully crafted world worth exploring. The thing is that the sandboxing between missions just feels out of place. "We're set, get over here fast." and then you go around looking for playboys and wanted posters. The story has replayability, what with the difficulty levels and collectibles, but it lacks some aftergame content. Sort of like MW2 has Spec. Ops. It's a bit wasteful to just leave the game at the story. And freeride extreme 2 would've came in handy for squeezing a bit more hours, but isn't a real necessity.

To say the gameplay is mostly driving is simply wrong. There are a large number of shootouts and some stealth missions (although not nearly enough considering how much potential they show). Mafia had just as much driving, and Mafia 2 does driving better.

I meant actually well done gameplay. The shootouts are all about going from cover to cover shooting a million bad guys. The story is the motivation to keep you going but near the end I thought: "oh great, another gun popping bullet whiz."

I don't really know what you mean about the map.

If you look at the left side you'll see some greyed out areas which, by what I've seen, are pretty detailed, meaning they've been locked out later in production and will probably be made available via DLC, but I might be wrong there. Then there's that marked drivable road to the right of the map which is inaccessible as well. There's lots of holes in the city which make the map smaller than it is. Lost Heaven, for example was twice or three times in size. Then again Lost Heaven had a shitload to do after the story.

The story is better in some places, and worse in some places. The ending is not nearly as good for example, and I feel that more missions should have taken place between the time Vito gets made and the time shit starts hitting the fan. Equally, we should have seen more of some characters.

Having said that, the plot is more multi-layered and the acting is better for the most part.

The story lacks pacing. I think this would've been nicer the way you said it. The way it is is just too fast; the characters are introduced too fast and you only get a glympse of them. Take that kid Marty, for example. He was in only two missions. Or Mike Bruski over at the scrapyard.

The plot is much better than your average game these days and the acting is superb. It's been a long time since you could've said "It looks like a movie.", which my friend did when he saw the game.

It's a worth sequel, but like I've said a couple of times, they seem to have gone a bit trigger-happy with cutting features. A lot of the interactive elements that were demoed (for instance: the two guys who mug Vito in the GC '09 demo) are simply missing, the only one being where the whore gets started on by the guy who crashes into her. Not to mention the side-missions that would flesh out secondary characters, and arise naturally whilst you're following the main objective of a mission.

I never watched the demos so as not to spoil it for myself. The game's files indicate a lot of missions cut, the map indicates a lot of locations cut out and the game for me was missing a little extra something after I finished. It's basically been butchered a lot and that's my main problem with it.

But consider thisPHA+SWYgaGUgd2FzIGEgcmF0LCB0aGUgZmVkcyBjb3VsZCBoYXZlIGp1c3Qgc2FpZCBoZSB3YXMgZGVhZCwgaW4gb3JkZXIgdG8gdGhyb3cgb2ZmIFZpdG8gYW5kIENvLiBBbHNvIGhlIGNvdWxkIGhhdmUganVzdCBibGFja2VkIG91dCBkdWUgdG8gYmxvb2QgbG9zcywgYnV0IGlmIGhlIHdhcyB0YWtlbiB0byBhIGhvc3BpdGFsIGluIHRpbWUsIGhlIGNvdWxkIGhhdmUgc3Vydml2ZWQ8L3A+

I don't know if he'll be back; but I will take the time to say that I never bought that part of the story.

Michael Davos:i swear every game russ reviews is no where near as awesome as he claims it to be.... either its a case of simple things amuse simple minds or hes getting bribed out the ass to make these rubbish games sound better than they actually are.

A third option could be that I enjoy a certain kind (or kinds) of game that you don't.

But that's a longshot. Let's go with the conspiracy theory instead. Yeah, that makes more sense.

I'm in two thirds of the story in Mafia 2 and so far I am really enjoying it. I completely agree with the point that its a linear game in an open world. The city in this respect works great, it is wonderfully and beautifully detailed (man falling on ice, policemen solving a car crash, man fixing a car with open bonnet) and is much smaller than in GTA IV, let's say, so you get to know your way around pretty quickly. The story so far was very good, very immersive to be honest.

What is my issue (not a big one) with the game is that it feels that it was deliberately chopped up so they could sell us some DLCs around Christmas time. For instance, why can't you stop call a taxi to take you places? There are phone booths all over the city but you always have nobody to talk to (why not one of the girls you meet throughout the game?). There is the scrapyard guy and shipyard guy on the map but they never give you any jobs to do...

The man had me from the first sentence, "Mafia II is one of the most immersive, rewarding videogame experiences you will ever play - if you have the patience for it."Honestly, I've been waiting for this game since Mafia 1, sadly I'm going to have to wait another month or so... just don't have the money now.

I found the best way to get that part done, actually, is to grab a nearby car and run it straight into the warehouse, under platform from which they shoot and throw molotovs at you. You'll avoid most of their fire and there's only two at the bottom you gotta deal with. From there you can shoot the guys upstairs by creeping around the sides and lobbing grenades/molotovs back at them, if you have any.

I actually almost didn't expect the game would let you drive a car all the way into an interior space, but it totally did. That was pretty cool. Should've had a mission where you'd assault some place by ramming a truck through the wall.

I found the best way to get that part done, actually, is to grab a nearby car and run it straight into the warehouse, under platform from which they shoot and throw molotovs at you. You'll avoid most of their fire and there's only two at the bottom you gotta deal with. From there you can shoot the guys upstairs by creeping around the sides and lobbing grenades/molotovs back at them, if you have any.

I actually almost didn't expect the game would let you drive a car all the way into an interior space, but it totally did. That was pretty cool. Should've had a mission where you'd assault some place by ramming a truck through the wall.

Well I did try that, but couldn't get out of the car fast enough. And they spawned right next to me.

SlyderEST:You know, the PC version isn't hard, the cover system isn't clunky and the camera isnt whatever you said, either. If I wouldn't do the fun stuff like beat up cops while they're shooting at me or unload a whole clip into one guy, I'd be completing the game in no-time.

Well few issues, first of all as said, the game is linear, there is no free roam or side missions (hi DLC milking money), the story is, while decent, full of cliches and the game flow is broken by cinematics and 'simple missions' (won't give away spoilers, but basically missions where what you do can be pretty much done better with a QTE cutscene) all the time.

I also don't know where you're coming from with "plenty of music" considering there are just 3 stations and very few songs on them. Also, since the gameplay is so cut up and there's no free roam, you can't really drive around listening to music without being interrupted or (very easily) killed. And if you're trying to load a chapter and play until you're killed, every time you die you have to watch the opening cutscene of the chapter, answer the phone, get dressed and walk out of your house which is always the same.

And naturally, since it's the same starting point after dying, getting into the car starts you off on the same time on the radio meaning every time you die, your radio is back to the same place, meaning you're listening to the same maximum of 3 songs every single time.

The playthrough is a fun experience, but it's so broken up and unsubstantial and the ending's so disappointing that it's simply not worth the price tag. With due respect Russ, your review kinda avoided anything bad about the game. I know opinions differ, but I kinda doubt you could've gotten through the whole game and looked back on it without seeing a single flaw. Reviews are supposed to give people a heads up on what the game is like and you just encouraged people to shell out 60$ without mentioning any of the pretty major flaws in the game, which I have to say is a bit of a poor show.

Imo, Mafia 2 was a huge dissapointment. The game was waaay to short, story was uninteresting, characters werent really all that likable, the ending sucked, and there was no side missions or anything else to do in the world. GTA 4 was alot better imo (except the music, music in Mafia 2 was awesome)